(Bloomberg) -- Hungary has fired a principal whose high school sought to resist a new government regulation banning mobile phones in the classroom.
The head of the Imre Madach high school, an elite public institution in Budapest, was dismissed for flouting the new law, according to an Interior Ministry statement published on MTI state news service on Wednesday.
Hungary is among countries that’s trying to crack down on the use of mobile devices in the classroom, which the government has said are a source of distraction.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Viktor Orban signed a decree that mandates that from Sept. 1, phones and so-called smart devices must be handed in at the start of the school day and can be returned only after classes are over.
The staff at the Madach school published a statement on Aug. 19 saying they wouldn’t confiscate phones, which are used as part of the teaching process. They did say they plan to regulate their use more strictly.
“The pedagogical goal of our school is to teach the proper employment of digital culture rather than its ban,” the teachers said.
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